Cherry Point Marine killed in motorcycle crash

Published: Monday, May 6, 2013 at 09:29 AM.

A Cherry Point Marine died Saturday when the motorcycle he was driving was struck by a pickup truck near Newport.

David Christopher Sandmeyer, 21, of Minnesota, was killed in the crash, which occurred around 2 p.m. Saturday on N.C. 24 near the Pender Park Fuel Market in Carteret County.

Sandmeyer was driving east on N.C. 24 when a pickup truck driven by Lou Millow Cacal, 72, who lives nearby, pulled out from the store into the path of the motorcycle, according to Trooper R.O. Melby with the N.C. Highway Patrol.

“Cacal told me that he had been stopped waiting as a funeral procession went by and, when it was through, he came out and didn’t see the motorcycle,” Melby said.

The trooper said that the impact threw Sandmeyer off the motorcycle to the north side of the highway. Melby said Sandmeyer was alive when rescue personnel first arrived, but that the Marine later died at the scene. Cacal was not hurt.

Melby said Sandmeyer was not married and his parents had been notified.

It had rained there earlier Saturday, but Melby said that weather did not contribute to the incident.

A Cherry Point Marine died Saturday when the motorcycle he was driving was struck by a pickup truck near Newport.

David Christopher Sandmeyer, 21, of Minnesota, was killed in the crash, which occurred around 2 p.m. Saturday on N.C. 24 near the Pender Park Fuel Market in Carteret County.

Sandmeyer was driving east on N.C. 24 when a pickup truck driven by Lou Millow Cacal, 72, who lives nearby, pulled out from the store into the path of the motorcycle, according to Trooper R.O. Melby with the N.C. Highway Patrol.

“Cacal told me that he had been stopped waiting as a funeral procession went by and, when it was through, he came out and didn’t see the motorcycle,” Melby said.

The trooper said that the impact threw Sandmeyer off the motorcycle to the north side of the highway. Melby said Sandmeyer was alive when rescue personnel first arrived, but that the Marine later died at the scene. Cacal was not hurt.

Melby said Sandmeyer was not married and his parents had been notified.

It had rained there earlier Saturday, but Melby said that weather did not contribute to the incident.

“It’s a bad little area there,” Melby said of the wreck location. “It’s not the first fatality there. I know of two and there may have been more.”

The trooper said he is waiting for response from the district attorney’s office on whether Cacal will face any charges in the crash.